Systems and Methods for Displaying Meta-Data

1. A method for laying out graphical icons, wherein all the steps are performed on a suitably programmed computer, comprising: maintaining a collection of documents; determining a plurality of attributes associated with the documents; receiving a request for visualization of the documents based on a first attribute; determining icons for the documents matching the first attribute; assigning icons to rows based on a second attribute of the documents, wherein each row contains N or fewer icons; labeling each row with a row indicator indicating a common value for the second attribute for the icons within each row; assigning icons to groups based on the first attribute of the documents in which a plurality of groups are determined; placing the icons in each group in successive portions of each row; separating each group with an inter-group indicator comprising a visual signal indication of a logical difference between each group; ordering the icons in the same row and group by a third attribute of the documents; organizing the icons into variably dimensioned columns based on the number of icons in each group in each row and the size of the inter-group indicator; laying out the icons associated with each row in a display space wide enough to contain N+k icons for some non-negative number k, wherein k is at least one of: a positive integer, 0, a non-negative integer plus a fraction; placing a first group of icons on a first end of each row and a second group of icons on the opposite end of each row; placing icons on backgrounds indicating group membership, in which the background comprises at least one of: a display characteristic, a color, and a pattern; and placing the icons in the display space, wherein all steps are executed by a processor.

2. The method of claim 1 , in which the region of display space containing each group in each row is separated by a line from the region of the display containing the immediately preceding group in that row, if any, and is separated by a line from the region of the display containing the immediately following group in that row, if any.

3. The method of claim 1 , in which the icons are assigned to groups before being assigned to rows.

4. The method of a claim 1 , in which the icons are assigned to rows based on the value of a plurality of attributes.

5. The method of claim 1 , in which the document comprises at least one of: audio, graphical and textual information.

6. The method of claim 1 , in which the first attribute is associated with a binary value indicating whether a document has been read.

7. The method of claim 1 , in which the first attribute has any number of values.

8. The method of claim 1 , in which the first attribute represents at least one of a rating, a ranking, and a score.

9. The method of claim 1 , in which the second attribute is a composite attribute, made of an ordered list of more fundamental attributes.

10. The method of claim 1 , in which an icon in a first abacus group of a first row is placed at a first horizontal position and a second icon in a distinct second abacus group on a second row is placed at a substantially overlapping horizontal position.

11. A system for laying out graphical icons comprising: a display space; a data repository storing a collection of documents; a memory storing processing instructions; and a processor configured to execute the processing instructions, wherein the processing instructions comprise: maintaining a collection of documents; determining a plurality of attributes associated with the documents; receiving a request for visualization of the documents based on a first attribute; determining icons for the documents matching the first attribute; assigning icons to rows based on a second attribute of the documents, wherein each row contains N or fewer icons; labeling each row with a row indicator indicating a common value for the second attribute for the icons within each row; assigning icons to groups based on the first attribute of the documents in which a plurality of groups are determined; placing the icons in each group in successive portions of each row; separating each group with an inter-group indicator comprising a visual signal indication of a logical difference between each group; ordering the icons in the same row and group by a third attribute of the documents; organizing the icons into variably dimensioned columns based on the number of icons in each group in each row and the size of the inter-group indicator; laying out the icons associated with each row in a display space wide enough to contain N+k icons for some non-negative number k, wherein k is at least one of: a positive integer, 0, a non-negative integer plus a fraction; placing a first group of icons on a first end of each row and a second group of icons on the opposite end of each row; placing icons on backgrounds indicating group membership, in which the background comprises at least one of: a display characteristic, a color, and a pattern; and placing the icons in the display space.

12. A computer readable storage medium comprising computer readable program code embodied on the computer readable storage medium, the computer readable program code useable to program a computer to displaying meta-data comprising the steps of: maintaining a collection of documents; determining a plurality of attributes associated with the documents; receiving a request for visualization of the documents based on a first attribute; determining icons for the documents matching the first attribute; assigning icons to rows based on a second attribute of the documents, wherein each row contains N or fewer icons; labeling each row with a row indicator indicating a common value for the second attribute for the icons within each row; assigning icons to groups based on the first attribute of the documents in which a plurality of groups are determined; placing the icons in each group in successive portions of each row; separating each group with an inter-group indicator comprising a visual signal indication of a logical difference between each group; ordering the icons in the same row and group by a third attribute of the documents; organizing the icons into variably dimensioned columns based on the number of icons in each group in each row and the size of the inter-group indicator; laying out the icons associated with each row in a display space wide enough to contain N+k icons for some non-negative number k, wherein k is at least one of: a positive integer, 0, a non-negative integer plus a fraction; placing a first group of icons on a first end of each row and a second group of icons on the opposite end of each row; placing icons on backgrounds indicating group membership, in which the background comprises at least one of: a display characteristic, a color, and a pattern; and placing the icons in the display space.

13. A method of laying out graphical icons, wherein all the steps are performed on a suitably programmed computer, comprising: maintaining a collection of documents; determining a plurality of attributes associated with the documents; receiving a request for visualization of the documents based on a first attribute; determining icons for the documents matching the first attribute; determining at least one icon group based on the first attribute in which a plurality of groups are determined; separating each group by an inter-group indicator comprising a visual signal indication of a logical difference between each group; determining a primary ordering of the icons within each group, in a first direction, based on a second attribute, wherein the primary ordering comprises rows, in which the rows are partitioned into sections of consecutive rows and in which a section header indicating a common value for the second attribute for the icons within each row is added before each section; determining a secondary ordering of the icons within each group, in a second direction, based on a third attribute; organizing the icons into variably dimensioned columns based on the number of icons in each group in each row and the size of the inter-group indicator; laying out the icons associated with each row in a display space wide enough to contain N+k icons for some non-negative number k, wherein k is at least one of: a positive integer, 0, a non-negative integer plus a fraction; placing a first group of icons on a first end of each row and a second group of icons on the opposite end of each row; placing icons on backgrounds indicating group membership, in which the background comprises at least one of: a display characteristic, a color, and a pattern; and placing the icons in the display space, wherein all steps are executed by a processor.

14. The method of claim 13 , further comprising the steps of: determining group cues based on the first attribute; and displaying the icons and the group cues.

15. The method of claim 13 , in which the inter-group indicator is at least one of: a difference in display characteristics; and a display gap between groups.

16. The method of claim 13 , in which the inter-group indicator is a display gap between groups.

17. A system for laying out graphical icons comprising: a display space; a data repository storing a collection of documents; a memory storing processing instructions; and a processor configured to execute the processing instructions, wherein the processing instructions comprise: determining a plurality of attributes associated with the documents; receiving a request for visualization of the documents based on a first attribute; determining icons for the documents matching the first attribute; determining at least one icon group based on the first attribute in which a plurality of groups are determined; separating each group by an inter-group indicator comprising a visual signal indication of a logical difference between each group; determining a primary ordering of the icons within each group, in a first direction, based on a second attribute, wherein the primary ordering comprises rows, in which the rows are partitioned into sections of consecutive rows and in which a section header indicating a common value for the second attribute for the icons within each row is added before each section; determining a secondary ordering of the icons within each group, in a second direction, based on a third attribute; organizing the icons into variably dimensioned columns based on the number of icons in each group in each row and the size of the inter-group indicator; laying out the icons associated with each row in a display space wide enough to contain N+k icons for some non-negative number k, wherein k is at least one of: a positive integer, 0, a non-negative integer plus a fraction; placing a first group of icons on a first end of each row and a second group of icons on the opposite end of each row; placing icons on backgrounds indicating group membership, in which the background comprises at least one of: a display characteristic, a color, and a pattern; and placing the icons in the display space.